


Full of Surprises

by TigStripe



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: M/M, One Shot, Post-Canon, mShenko, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:21:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22898683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigStripe/pseuds/TigStripe
Summary: Shepard leads Kaidan on a lunch date that no one could have anticipated.
Relationships: Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard
Comments: 3
Kudos: 44





	Full of Surprises

“Liara said you wanted to see me?”

Shepard looked up from the datapad in front of him to see the dashing visage of one Kaidan Alenko standing in the doorway to his office, leaning on the frame with his arms crossed in front of him and an eyebrow hitched in mischievous suspicion. A small skipped across Shepard’s face, but he quickly composed himself.

“Yeah. I’m taking you out.”

Kaidan’s head cocked a little. “Taking me out? Shepard, it’s the middle of the day. We’ve got work to do. What are you-”

“So you don’t want to?” The way the corners of the Spectre’s mouth fell gave Kaidan a twinge in his stomach.

“Well, no, I didn’t say that.”

Finally, Shepard allowed himself to smile as he closed down the datapad and set it on his desk. “Good. Grab a jacket.”

Now Kaidan’s curiosity was thoroughly piqued. “A jacket? On New Citadel? Everything’s climate-controlled.”

Shepard led the way out of his office and toward a lift at the far end of Spectre HQ, the implanted joint in his leg whirring quietly as he went. As they boarded the lift, Kaidan could almost feel Shepard bouncing in place. It was rare for Shepard to smile this much.

“R&D,” Shepard spoke, lighting up the lift. It hummed to life and shot upward, passing several decks of New Citadel in the blink of an eye.

"R&D? What are you up to, John?” Kaidan tapped his foot, his impatience beginning to take hold. He wasn’t particularly fond of being dragged around, even if it was by Shepard.

“You’ll see.” Shepard’s smile was apparent in his voice. Kaidan could practically see the excitement radiating off him.

The lift came to a stop at the R&D level as requested, letting the duo out onto a wide floor of several individual research stations. At the far end of the floor was a door that Kaidan hadn’t been through - it was proprietary QEC research the Salarians and Asari had been working on for decades, even before the Reaper threat. It was through that door that Shepard led him, forcing his curiosity on even higher alert than before.

“Arula,” Shepard greeted as they approached what looked to Kaidan like a normal QEC hub. An Asari turned to greet them. As vibrant as her skin was and the light in her eyes still quite fresh, she couldn’t be any older than Liara. She looked Shepard in the eye, a grin on her face.

“I’m so glad you’re here, Shepard! We’re just about to begin, and I was hoping you wouldn’t be late.”

“Where is ‘here,’ exactly, Shepard?” Kaidan asked.

The answer was simple and infuriating: “You’ll see.”

“Step onto the QEC panel, if you would, Spectre Alenko,” Arula instructed with a lazy gesture. “We’ll get started.”

Kaidan stepped up onto the panel, his brow furrowing. “I’m not keen on surprises, you know.”

Arula tapped a few buttons on the console in front of her as Shepard gave him a simple shrug.

“Shepard, tell me what this is all-”

A flash of light snuck into Kaidan’s question.

“-about.”

Kaidan blinked, first from disorientation, then from disbelief, as actual sunlight lit up the view in front of him. He stood on the back patio of a large cabin atop a large hill, overlooking a sparkling lake, hidden from the world by a ring of mountains and forests. The sky overhead was bright and blue and clear. The autumn chill hit his face as he recognized where he was.

_Home._

Kaidan stepped forward, placing his hands on the railing in front of him as he took in the nature before him. He recognized the trees, the mountains, the lake - everything. Somehow, he’d be _teleported_ back home, to Canada.

He looked back to where he’d appeared. A small panel on the wooden patio was the only thing out of place - it looked very Asari. He must have been brought to that spot specifically as part of their...test?

“A QE _teleporter,”_ Kaidan marveled. “If only we’d had that kind of technology a year ago.”

There was a small flash of light from the panel, and Shepard stood with his hands in his pockets and a huge grin plastered across his face. He looked around for a moment, surveying his locale, then wiggled an eyebrow at Kaidan. “So?”

“Shepard, that was _amazing,”_ Kaidan replied, his cool voice threatening to burst out of his chest with excitement. “We’re at my _house._ On _Earth._ In no time at all!”

Shepard stepped down and joined him at the edge of the patio, leaning heavy on the railing as he took in the beautiful view around them. “First successful tests were yesterday, but they’d been working on the finishing touches for about a month. Remember when I went on that diplomacy mission a few weeks back?”

“You really stopped in here to install the panel,” Kaidan interjected. Shepard nodded. “That was crafty. I had no idea.”

“I also made a trip earlier today,” Shepard said. “I wanted to make sure it worked safely, and I also wanted us to have lunch on the patio. So I dropped by this morning and made up some sandwiches. They’re in the kitchen.”

Kaidan’s heart skipped a beat as he started to laugh. “This is incredible, Shepard. This tech is groundbreaking. It should be reserved for the scientists, not lunch dates!”

“Well, it’s not entirely functional,” Shepard said. “The panel has a rather limited battery and a recharge time of a few hours, so we only had enough juice for the two trips. Plus, we don’t have a way to initiate transport from here. So, to get back to New Citadel, we’ll have to be on the panel exactly when they’re ready to bring us back.”

Kaidan leaned in and wrapped an arm around Shepard’s shoulders. “I can’t believe you did all this for a lunch date.”

Shepard’s response was a simple chuckle. “Can’t you, though?”

With a little considering on this, Kaidan shrugged and nodded. “No, I suppose you _are_ just extra enough for something like this, Mr. Reaper-Killer.”

Shepard leaned into Kaidan’s body, resting his head on the other’s neck. Kaidan lowered his face and kissed the top of Shepard’s head.

“Thanks, Shepard.”

“That’s more like it.”

“So, when do we go back?”

“We’ve got about four hours.”

Kaidan chuckled. “What, oh pray tell, do we do for four hours, here in complete solitude and isolation?”

“If you have to ask, you don’t know me at all.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”


End file.
